


A Cordial Victorian Haunting

by gallantrejoinder



Category: Corpse Bride (2005)
Genre: Dreamsharing, Ghosts, Haunting, I can't believe I'm writing Corpse Bride fanfiction in the year of our Lord 2016, OT3, Other, Polyamory, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-29 09:58:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8484961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gallantrejoinder/pseuds/gallantrejoinder
Summary: Six months after Victor van Dort and Victoria Everglot get married, they each begin to suspect their house is haunted.~The story of three young people in love even as death did them part.





	

Six months after Victor van Dort and Victoria Everglot get married, they each begin to suspect their house is haunted.

It starts out small, quite subtle really. At first, it’s the butterflies, which seem to follow them wherever they go. They’re blue and white and don’t seem to conform to the expected butterfly seasons – that is, they show up in winter in the same numbers as most butterflies do in spring.

And then there are the flowers. Every week, without fail, a bouquet of flowers will appear on the dining room table. One morning it’s lilies, and the smell fills the house with sweetness all day. The next week, it’s roses, and the bright blue colour stands out against the bleakness of the room brilliantly. On the morning after Victoria discovers she is pregnant, a poesy of Baby’s Breath appears on the table.

It takes them both a long time to realise that neither is responsible for the flowers. It finally comes up one day over dinner. Victoria is trying to thank Victor for being so sweet, coming up with all the different flowers for her every week, before he clumsily admits he thought _she_ was doing it.

“ … Hmm,” Victoria says, with a thoughtful frown.

“Hmm,” Victor agrees, speechless with confusion.

There isn’t a rational explanation for the phenomenon, no matter how they rack their brains for a solution. So they do the Victorian thing and pretend they don’t notice the very next week when the flowers become camellias.

 

~

 

But then things become a little harder to ignore.

The little dog they adopted a couple of months into their marriage begins to bark playfully and wag its tail at odd times. Neither of them are playing with him when it happens, though he behaves much the same when they are. One day, they’re sitting together in the drawing room talking when a ball rolls into the room, the dog chasing after it, picking it up, and running back out of the room. When they rush to follow him, they see only him, wagging his tail with the ball in his mouth, staring up at the wall with a dopy, adoring look on his face.

They don’t exactly go advertising the fact that their house is haunted. Victoria’s parents would have a fit and Victor’s parents would probably be ... less than helpful, as usual. Once more, they decide without words to keep the ghostly activity in their home to themselves. But then something happens that makes it all click.

 

~

 

One night, as they’re both drifting off to sleep, the piano down the hall begins to play itself. And sitting bolt upright, heart pounding with amazement, Victor realises that he recognises the tune.

‘What is it?’ Victoria asks, eyes wide in the gloom. ‘Is it the ghost? Do you know that tune, Victor?’

‘Yes,’ he whispers back shakily. ‘It’s the song I played with Emily in the land of the dead.’

Victoria doesn’t know what to say to that. Victor doesn’t know what to say either. So they sit there in the dark, holding each other, listening to the music float through the house. It’s not sad music, either, the way it was in the land of the dead when Victor first saw her sitting alone at the piano. It’s ... playful, almost. Fun, teasing. As the song goes on, Victor and Victoria both begin to relax and feel less frightened. By the time the song ends, they both look at each other wordlessly and know: their ghost is Emily. 

 

~

 

After a few weeks of night-time music, they learn to simply let it send them to sleep, the kind of sleep that is dreamless and restful, leaving one totally refreshed in the morning.

One night, however, they share a dream. Victor walks through a brilliantly green forest, a ridiculously idyllic and bright place to be considering how his bleak and gloomy town usually invades his dreams. Victoria dreams of it too, walking at his side with one hand on her growing stomach and the other reaching out to take his hand. She has to occasionally steady Victor, whose clumsiness apparently translates to dreams, but neither speak, staring around in wonder.

And then, on the path ahead, they see a figure.

She’s simply sitting on the path, staring away from them, into the sunrise. The last time they saw her, she was bathed in moonlight and half rotted away, her skin a sickly blue colour and her hair in clumps of knots. But not here.

Here, her skin is brown and warm. Her hair is dark brown, almost black, and it flows down her back smoothly. The wedding dress that once hung in tatters on her frame is white and untainted by grave dirt here, and the roses in her crown are alive and thriving.

They both stop, Victoria putting the hand that rested on her stomach to her mouth as she gasps, realising who she’s looking at. Victor at her side has turned, if possible, even paler than he usually is. At the sound of Victoria’s gasp, the figure turns -

And Emily really was the most beautiful woman for miles around, when she was alive. If her beauty was obvious even as a corpse, it’s stunning now, looking as she must have done moments before she died. Her eyes are wide and a shade of deep, deep black as she stares back at the two of them in surprise, seeming to not be expecting them.

They all begin to talk at once, of course. And they all stop, embarrassed and a little astounded, of course. Finally, Victoria says what they’re all thinking.

‘I don’t mean to be rude, Emily, but the last time we saw you, you turned into a cloud of butterflies,’ she sputters.

Emily blushes and ducks her head.

‘Ah, yes, that was rather the ... way of it. Except, you see, while my body has most definitely disappeared, my spirit appears to have … remained. I discovered that when I found myself in – well, in your home,’ she says, looking rather embarrassed by the story.

‘Oh,’ Victoria says, flummoxed.

They both turn to Victor, remembering him in the same instant.

‘Victor?’ They say in unison.

Victor faints.

As is to be expected, they both gasp and fuss over him until he regains consciousness, and when it becomes clear that he’s fine and simply overreacted to seeing his former, completely dead wife’s ghost making small talk with his current, living wife, they have a good laugh at how ridiculous he is. He even manages to smile at that.

 

~

 

They speak all throughout the day (night? Time seems to be reversed in this strange dreamworld.) Emily reveals that yes, she has been haunting them. She didn’t mean anything by it, only wanting to check in, not trying to steal Victor away again. It was just difficult to stop, once she started. She just wanted to make things nice for the two of them.

‘Excuse me,’ she says, gesturing to Victoria’s stomach. ‘I mean, the three of you.’

Victor and Victoria both smile at that, and Victoria has a thought.

‘Emily,’ she says, uncertainly. ‘I’m not sure this will work, exactly. As far as I can see, this is some sort of – of –’

‘Dream-space?’ Victor suggests.

‘Yes, thank you dear. Some sort of dream-space, so I’m not sure it will work, and you can say no of course, but – the thing is, even if I’m dreaming, I’m sure I can feel the baby kicking. Do you want to feel her, Emily?’ Victoria holds her breath while waiting for Emily to answer.

Emily smiles shyly as she does. ‘Oh, that would be wonderful.’

As she places her hand on Victoria’s stomach, Victoria picks up Victor’s hand and places it on top of Emily’s. And the baby does kick, and she laughs.

 

~

 

They continue to talk for a few hours more until, regretfully, the sun begins to set, and they realise they’ll have to wake up soon. Victor looks at them both imploringly.

‘Emily, if it’s all right with you – I mean if you don’t mind – I mean, Emily, we want you to stay, if you wish. We like having the house haunted by you,’ he says nervously. Victoria’s glad he said it, or else she would have.

Emily smiles as the last sunlight begins to fade from the surrounding trees.

‘I’d like that,’ she says, and Victoria feels as if a flight of butterflies has taken off inside her that has nothing to do with the child growing inside her. Across from her, Victor feels the same.

And then Victor and Victoria wake up.

 

~  


For a moment, they both stare at each other, unsure if what they saw was just a dream. Just as they’re both beginning to feel doubt set in, the piano down the hall begins playing a merry tune. In that moment, they both know that they will never quite be rid of Emily, who has twice now beaten death itself to return to them.

And they are both immeasurably happy for it.

**Author's Note:**

> It's 2016. I literally cannot believe myself. Who am I.
> 
> [My Tumblr.](https://gallantrejoinder.tumblr.com/)


End file.
